Those cycling books I used to read in the 70’s told me that the ‘Fleche Wallonne’ had a route which resembled an arrow in flight. I could never see it, personally – but I later read it was because the route slices across Wallonia like an arrow. Whatever the reason, it’s the ‘Walloon Arrow’ or ‘Waalse Pijl’ as they say in Flemish.

Starting in Charleroi, the race heads east to describe loops around and through the town of Huy.

These loops include three ascents of the tough ‘Muur Van Hoei’ as the say in Flemish – ‘Mur de Huy’ in French.

Whilst it’s not a Zoncolan or Angliru, it’s pretty damn tough – a 1300m climb with an average gradient of 9.3%, and maximum ramps of approximately 17 percent.

There are another seven categorised climbs but in the latter stages of the race there’s very little flat road.

Race distance for 2012 is 194 kilometres, which makes it a more open race – there are many more riders who are competitive over five hours than there are over six-and-a-half hours.

This makes it difficult to have a ‘typical winner’ – three of the four men who have won the race have done so during my lifetime and emphasise the point.

Belgium’s Eddy Merckx was, well, Eddy Merckx – a big beast of a man with power to burn.

Venetian, Moreno Argentin was small but solid with a power to weight ratio which made him practically unbeatable in an uphill sprint.

Moreno Argentin.

Staying with Italy, Davide Rebellin is our third three time winner, a waif of a man – you could mistake his bike for a junior’s.

The fourth of the three time winners was Belgian Marcel Kint – but that was 1943 to ’45 and I’m not that old.

On the subject of age, the Fleche was first run in 1936 with only the 1940 race lost to World War Two.

Many of the big names have won here – albeit over a route which has varied much over the years – Riks Van Looy and Van Steenbergen, Raymond Poulidor, Roger De Vlaeminck, Francesco Moser, Bernard Hinault have all won, as well as ‘Big Ted.’

But you have to go all the way back to 2001 to find a winner who was a big, powerful man – Belgian, Rik Verbrugghe.

Since then, there’s been skinny Belgian mountain goat, Mario Aerts; the slight Spaniards Igor Astarloa and Alejandro Valverde; Rebellin (three times); the stocky (but small) Italian Danilo Di Luca and similarly built Luxembourger, Kim Kirchen; with the last two winners in Cadel Evans and Philippe Gilbert both tough men but whippets rather than bulldogs.

Philippe Gilbert.

Last year Gilbert was unstoppable, on a wave of form where it was news if he lost a race.

This year the form has been less spectacular – albeit he was looking like 95% of the 2011 PhilGil model on the Cauberg in Sunday’s Amstel Gold Race.

The man will be desperate for a win so he can stop from being asked the same question in one hundred different forms.

BMC team mate Cadel Evans doesn’t ride, so Phil will have Greg Van Avermaet and Mauro Santambrogio all to himself – both riders were hugely impressive in the Amstel finale.

Joaquim Rodriguez.

Second last year was diminutive Spaniard, Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) – he should have been one of the favourites for the Amstel on Sunday after a blistering Pais Vasco but it didn’t happen.

He’ll be looking for better on Wednesday.

Spain also provided the third finisher last year in the shape of Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel) – but ‘Sammy’ has ‘passed’ on the Fleche, this year.